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Grady Little postgame interview

Grady Little postgame interview

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Q. What will be the message to your team going back to LA after losing the first two games?

GRADY LITTLE: I think that we're in a tight spot, you know. That pretty much sums it up. We've been there before this year where we've had games we've had to win and we were able to get the job done. So we're in that spot again. We've got to come out ready to win three in a row. That's all.
That will be one of the first times in any of our lives we'll be looking forward to flying back here so shortly.

Q. Can you fill us in on what's happening with Nomar.

GRADY LITTLE: Today he strained his quad, the same injury he's been operating with for the last two or three weeks. He's trying to get through it, and it's very difficult.
But we'll check him again tomorrow and see how he is.

Q. Do you at least feel confident that you have Maddux on the mound on Saturday for you?

GRADY LITTLE: I think that goes without saying that we're confident with our pitcher on the mound on Saturday. We're very confident, we're a much better offensive club than we've shown here these last two days.

Q. It seemed you guys were done with a few mistakes tonight between the ball that Julio Franco beat out that you weren't able to turn the double play, another bunt attempt and the error with Tokyo. Do you think you can clean that up?

GRADY LITTLE: Well, we don't have a choice. The kid we had on the mound today, we were very impressed with the way he battled. He kept his composure out there. We misplayed a couple of balls and a good team took advantage of those.
The guy we're facing certainly showed us the reason why he's getting ready to win 300 games.

Q. You had a conference with the home plate umpire after the first pitch. Can you tell us what was discussed?

GRADY LITTLE: I guess it was a bookkeeping error from the other side because the lineup card that we got was not the exact one that the umpire had, the official one. I guess they had a late scratch in their lineup or something, but it was nothing major. The official card had the correct team on the field, the one the umpire had in his pocket, but it wasn't the same thing we had in ours.

Q. Was it a discrepancy of one player?

GRADY LITTLE: Yes.

Q. Who?

GRADY LITTLE: I guess earlier in the day, it happens to all of us, you have one lineup in your mind and by the time you start the game, there's a change. The lineup that we had had Green in it, and Chavez took the field. We wanted to make sure that what the umpire had was the correct one, and it was. That's what happens when you start using these computers to do these lineup cards (smiling).

Q. You touched upon Glavine before. Can you just talk about his performance.

GRADY LITTLE: Well, I think he's been doing that to hitters for a long time. We watched him do that in Atlanta for a long time and now he's had a great season here. This guy's an outstanding pitcher and a lot of hitters talk to themselves after they face him three or four times.

Q. The table setters, the top three guys in your batting order have struggled the last two games. Is that more about the fact they're not producing or they're being pitched very well?

GRADY LITTLE: I think it's all about them being pitched very well. I tell you, those two guys have been doing a heck of a job all year long for us, and they've done a good job scoring runs and making a lot of action on the bases.
But these first two games, it hasn't happened. But hopefully Saturday they'll get it going.

Q. Talk a little bit more about Greg Maddux going for you in the next game. He's had a lot of success against the New York Mets in his career. Talk a little bit about, you know, what you're looking from Greg coming up.

GRADY LITTLE: Greg is going to have a great plan when he takes the mound, and he's one of those pitchers that can take this great plan and put it into effect. Hopefully, he'll be able to do that on Saturday.
He will have a plan. It's as good a plan as anyone could have. He'll execute it and see what happens.

Courtesy of FastScripts by ASAP Sports. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.